Central Utah Ballet is excited to welcome Ursula Perry to our faculty as our Modern/Contemporary dance instructor beginning the 2023-24 season. Ursula is an exceptionally talented instructor with over twenty years of experience as a performing dance artist and dance educator.

Ursula Perry was born in Houston, Texas where she began her training at the Houston Ballet Academy. She studied at various prestigious ballet schools, including the Boston Ballet, Joffery Ballet, Alvin Ailey, and the Edge Performing Arts Center.

Ursula then attended the University of Utah School of Dance where she studied performance and instruction, graduating with her Bachelors of Fine Arts in 2022.Since graduation, she has performed with Bodiography Contemporary Ballet, Prism Dance Theatre, and River North. Since her return to Salt Lake, she is proud to have performed with RawMoves, Movement Forum, and Influx Dance, joining Repertory Dance Theater in 2013.

During her tenure at Repertory Dance Theater, she performed several works, including those by Donald McKayle, Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Doris Humphrey, Ishan Rustem, and Lar Lubovitch.

Her time at Repertory Dance Theater was an enriching one as she performed the first and only black female dancer in Repertory Dance Theater’s 56-year history as well as being a role model and inspiration for dancers young and old. This drove her passion to create opportunities for the young and old to learn and heal through movement. “The physical being is not only a tool, but a storage space for the human story,” she says. It is her belief that the power of movement and grit of raw physicality can heal both the body and the mind.

“We are excited to have Ursula Perry joining our faculty as a modern and contemporary dance instructor at Central Utah Ballet,” says Jennie Creer-King, owner and director at Central Utah Ballet Academy in Lehi, Utah. “She is an exceptionally talented performer and instructor and will bring a great level of knowledge and artistry to our ballet studio.”

Ursula will be teaching modern and contemporary dance at Central Utah Ballet beginning the 2023-24 season. She says about the program, “As Central Utah Ballet contemporary director, I am focused on the technical strengths that connect classical ballet and modern/contemporary dance. The historical validity of both genres are impossible to execute without one another. I would like to guide each dance artist to use the classical ballet tools and their individual strengths to hone in on their artistic voice. It is my belief that having both skill sets will not only improve their technique, but also their performance quality.”

About Ursula Perry

Ursula is an exceptionally experienced and talented instructor with over twenty years of experience as a performing dance artist as well as a dance educator. Read her full bio by clicking the link below.

About Central Utah Ballet

Central Utah Ballet is a ballet school offering fully comprehensive, classically based ballet programs. The curriculum at Central Utah Ballet is specifically designed to meet each child in his or her emotional and physical development while creating a strong foundation in classical ballet technique. The instructors and faculty at Central Utah Ballet are all highly trained and experienced, with substantial professional dance careers and degrees in higher education specializing in choreography, teaching, or pedagogy. We know that the quality of our dance instructors at Central Utah Ballet has a big impact on your child’s experience with our ballet school and ballet as a whole, so we conscientiously choose staff that will help make their experience as positive as possible. Explore our classes or register today by clicking the link below.